TAG ARCHIVES: butterfly wedding theme

Bride Roma is just the cutest, and what amazing fashion choices – a W-day gown from Spitalfields Market that was £30 (!) and then changing into an evening gown that she had treated herself to from Matthew Williamson 9 years previously….but never worn.

You see she was waiting for a really special occasion, and what could be more special than the day you say “I Do” to your future life partner?

The venue is truly spectacular too, Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, chosen for its similarities to Roma’s family home and the locality to where Max grew up. They also do amazing food – plenty of detail about menu choices included in the text folks.

And the car?!?! A Mercedes 300 SEL in turquoise blue…..I die.

An Honour

Roma The Bride:My husband lived on the Farm (which is next to Petersham nurseries) during his 20’s and has spent a lot of his life in the Richmond area so it was important for him to get married in surroundings that held a lot of nostalgia. I have always loved going to Petersham Nurseries, it is so beautiful and a very reminiscent of my family’s home, so it seemed the perfect location for both of us.

They don’t normally do weddings, so for us, it was a true honour to have the privilege indeed!

Beauty Basics

I used Diana Moar as my hair and make-up artist. Diana was introduced to me by my good friend Resh Patel, Diana looks after Daisy Lowe and Alexa Chung. I wanted to look as naturel as possible as I don’t really wear much make up on a day to day basis. I had a couple of single fake eyelashes just to fill my eyes out as I have very fine lashes, and we highlighted my cheekbones. I had my nails done in Shellac ( this also something I don’t normally do!) Nude on my fingers and a pinkish Coral on my toes, as I wanted a bit of fun!

My hair was curled, set and then pulled out slightly and fixed with a simple bohemian weave (half up half down) For perfume, I wore “Lily” by Stella McCartney which Max had recently bought as a gift for me.

9 Years Later

Believe it or not I bought my wedding dress less than a week before my wedding for £30 from Spitalfields Market. It was made from cream vintage lace, came down to just above the ankle, had a round neck with half thength sleeves. Designed by NAVY. I saw it as soon as I arrived, had to try it on over my clothes (due to there being no changing rooms)…….bought it and was back in the car on the way home in less than 10 minutes! Halfway through my reception dinner I changed into my Matthew Williamson cocktail dress which I bought around the time that Max and I got together. It was a treat to myself and I remember thinking when I bought it, that I would save it for a really special occasion ……..

9 years later and I still hadn’t worn it, so to wear it on this special day seemed perfect. Later that evening I adorned my vintage, light grey fur coat, nice and cosy for when the sun went down!

Car Love

I loved my car! It was a Classic Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 in Turquoise Blue, called “Cosmic Wheels”, it was originally owned by 60’s Pop icon Donavon. Our driver was so lovely, he drove us around Richmond Park for a lap of honour between the wedding and reception – such a beautiful ride!

The Most Amazing Day

I have to be honest, marriage and weddings, have never been high up on my list of things that I think are important to do. I have always believed, that when I met the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, that would be enough, I never really believed in the conformity of Marriage. Max and I had been together for 7and a half years, we were engaged for just over a year and had no real date or plans to get married in the near future, however certain circumstances in August changed everything and in November we decided to get married.

Our special day was organised in 2 weeks and it definitely became more of a celebration of life to be honest more than anything else. It was really important to share this day with our family who had been so supportive over those past few months. It also marked a new beginning for us, not only new life we had been given, but for a new future, as we were relocating to Kenya in the new year. So this day was also probably the last time the whole families would be together for a while. Still to this day it was one of the most amazing days I have ever had! I look back at that day, probably every day……. And I feel so very lucky.

Butterflies And Beetles

We didn’t have a specific theme as such however our surroundings played a major part. ….Butterflies and Beetles! there is a family tradition of mine for the love of Butterflies, my mother and her mother before her used to say at bed time “goodnight and just remember I love you all the butterflies in the world!” It was also very fitting with Petersham Nurseries, all the ladies had name cards of Butterflies and all the Men had Beetles!

Antique

The flowers provided by “The flower room” in Barnes were for the Posies and Button Holes. All other flowers at the reception provided by Petersham Nurseries.

We chose antique light pink/purple roses, sage green with purple edging hydrangeas, eucalyptus and rosemary for my posy. Button holes were one antique rose with little bit of Hydrangea and a piece of ivy at the back.

German & English

We had a non-religious ceremony at Richmond Registry office, neither of us attend church on a regular basis so it would seem strange to then have our wedding in one. We had the additional line added to our vows: “I promise to laugh with you in joy and cry with you in sorrow” My father read The Owl and The Pussycat. Our registrar was fantastic he was very funny indeed and made us all laugh a lot!

My sister in law, Christina, read a German poem which max wrote to me inside our first valentine’s day card (she read it in both German and English, beautifully) it was called “Was es ist” by Erich Fried

Delicious!

The food at Petersham Nuseries is always fresh and delicious, with a lot of it grown on site, our Chef was Greg Malouf, his style is middle eastern cuisine, he has a Lebanese/Australian background.

Our Wedding Cake was made by the very talented young up and coming pastry chef Louise Charlotte Bintcliffe!

We had raspberry and white chocolate cheese cake topped with a layer of strawberry and champagne jelly garnished with glazed berries. The writing was made with white chocolate.

Memories Forever

Try your best to remember every moment as the day passes in a flash! Make a point of spending a bit of quality time with everyone if you can, this day means the world to them as well, which you don’t actually realise until the day!! Laugh, be happy and smile, this is one of the best days of your life! Get a good photographer, Claudine Hartzel (my photographer) took some of the best photos I have ever seen of me and my family. I look at them every day and can still feel that day through every photo and I will cherish them forever!! Thank you Claudine.

Details details details…. this W-day is full of ’em. And they are beautiful. Officially the prettiest “cheese” cake I have ever seen and the marquee interior is something else, think giant butterfly motifs, chandeliers and an abundance of blousy blooms.

And if you are a small-and-cute dog fan then Polly’s pooch will make your heart melt.

Oh and there is a second dress. And some you-will-want-to-steal favour ideas.

I know. We are so spoiling you today people.

Spread The Love

Rob and I made Raspberry Jam with labels that said ‘spread the love’. We also gave each female guest a mini birdcage which holds a tealight – which doubled as table decorations! We wanted everyone to have a memory of our day and also a token of appreciation for coming to Frome to share our day with us.

A Running Theme

I spent months planning the decoration. I found a company that lines marquees with linings with enormous butterflies on, as well as providing stunning chandeliers that you don’t normally find in a marquee. Butterflies, and birds then became a running them throughout the décor.

Setting The Table

Each table had a grey tablecloth (in keeping with the colour scheme) covered with yellow butterfly confetti which Rob and I punched out ourselves. The flowers were presented in white washed ceramic plant pots and alternating place settings had small grey birdcages on them, with yellow ribbon.

Each place setting had a card on it which gave a fun and random fact about the person to their left and to their right, to break the ice.

DIY Entertainment

We set up a DIY photobooth in the corner of the marquee with hats and moustaches on sticks. We provided a Polaroid camera as well as many disposable cameras for photos – and guests stuck their silly polaroids into our guestbook with a message – as we thought it was more fun. We also had a small newspaper tree that people hung luggage tag notes of advice and wishes for our marriage on.

Say Cheese

We went with a cake made of wheels of cheese! We have always found wedding cake to be fairly uninspiring (they look gorgeous, but cost a fortune and don’t taste that amazing), but we both adore cheese and so decided what better than to get great wheels of the stuff, pile it up and call it a cake! We selected a variety of local Somerset cheeses and arranged them in a wedding cake style, and covered it in butterflies. We then served the cake at around 10pm when people were getting rather hungry! It went down a storm.

A Smashing Success

We had a DJ for the eveing as we have found bands can be really hit and miss. For the drinks reception we had a string quartet who alternated between classical and modern music.

Rob and I decided to take the opportunity of an impending first dance to learn to Lindy hop. We went to several group lessons and then some private lessons to choreograph a dance. We didn’t really have a specific song in mind, as like so many couples we know, we don’t really have ‘a song’, so we started thinking about artists we like, and listening to the lyrics of various songs until we found one that we felt both fit a Lindy hop, and reflected our feelings for each other. We settled on Michael Buble’s ‘Love.’ The dance was a smashing success!

Personal Touches

The table plan was presented in an enormous empty antique gold picture frame – each table was stuck on to a separate piece of ribbon and suspended in the frame. We hung this from a tree in the garden. I made bunting signage out of burlap which was hung in various areas such as ‘guestbook’, ‘photobooth’, and ‘let them eat cheese’
We also made confetti cones our of old wallpaper samples, all the confetti was made from dried rose petals from my parents garden.

What Makes It Special

Our wedding was so special as that was the day we became Husband and Wife.

However, aside from that, what made is special is that we decided to do as much as possible in the way of preparation and decoration ourselves. Not only did it give our wedding a really personal touch, but it was also a great activity for us to do together in the run up to the wedding – it was something that we could share with our friends and family too, and so many loved ones got involved with cutting out birds, punching confetti, making place settings or stuffing confetti cones. You only get married once and I hated the idea of paying someone else to do the fun things that I could do myself. It was so much fun trawling various wedding websites to look for inspiration and trying out new crafts before deciding on what to do!

Equally, choosing to learn a new dance for our first dance was a great chance for us to spend some time together trying out something new that we really enjoyed – and we’ll have that dance routine for life.

Our biggest success, which I would recommend to anyone – was the fact cards. We made little cards for each place setting – which had a random and funny (but true!) fact about the person either side of them on, and we were told over and over again how brilliant it was to meet someone new and instantly have a hilarious conversation starter given to them. Many friends were made as a result.

As for advice – as a bride, I would tell any other bride-to-be to treasure the time spent planning your big day, don’t wish it away, enjoy the planning, enjoy the anticipation and the debates on colour schemes, flowers and table decorations, but equally don’t forget that its just a party – and the real fun starts the day after, when you are married to the man of your dreams!

Oh – and another thing – many, many women will ask you how much weight you lost from ‘the stress of the wedding’ or how much you plan to lose before the big day – IGNORE THEM!

P.S Have I mentioned how there is a full on who-is-the-best-at-D.I.Y-posts competition going on at RMW HQ between Vix and Adam? No? Well there is. And it’s Adam’s turn this afternoon. And not wanting to make his head any bigger or anything but…. this one is more than a little bit genius.